TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Former FBI Director James Comey testified today in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee about President Trump and allegations of illegal ties to Russia. There’s no shortage of coverage on Comey’s testimony online and in the media, but here’s one take from the Washington Post:

Former FBI director James B. Comey on Thursday essentially laid out an obstruction of justice case against President Trump and suggested senior leaders in the bureau might have actually contemplated the matter before Trump removed him as director.

Comey did not explicitly draw any legal conclusions. Whether justice was obstructed, he said, was a question for recently appointed special counsel Robert Mueller. But he said Trump’s request to terminate the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn left him “stunned,” and senior FBI officials considered it to be of “investigative interest.”…

…Legal analysts have said previously that there was reason to believe Trump might have obstructed justice — both in asking him to shut down the probe into Flynn and then, later, in firing Comey. Comey’s testimony, they said Thursday, clarified and bolstered the case.

Comey testified that he was skeptical of Trump almost from the outset, and he decided to document their interactions because he was “concerned [Trump] might lie about the nature of our meeting.”

Locally, the editorial board of the Denver Post didn’t wait long to weigh in on the Comey testimony:

Even if Trump isn’t implicated in colluding with the Russians, even if none of his campaign staffers are found guilty, Comey’s sworn testimony and the known facts about his firing cripple the president’s credibility.

In the aftermath of former FBI Director James Comey’s highly-anticipated testimony, President Donald Trump’s outside counsel says the president feels “vindicated” and ready to move forward with his agenda for the country.

Marc Kasowitz maintained Thursday in a statement to reporters at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. that Trump never asked Comey for his loyalty, contradicting a key part of the ousted FBI director’s testimony. President Trump’s personal lawyer took no questions and departed the room after delivering the short statement in support of the White House.

“The president also never told Mr. Comey, ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty,’ in form or substance,” Kasowitz told reporters.

The White House appears to be trying to deflect Comey’s testimony by hoping to paint the former FBI Director as “one of these leakers.”

► According to new poll results from Quinnipiac University, President Trump’s approval ratings have dropped to a new low. Again.

► Polls are open in the United Kingdom in what has become a bitter general election campaign. Prime Minister Theresa May is nonetheless expected to maintain control once the votes are counted.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► If anyone fared worse than President Trump from the Comey testimony, it was Sen. John McCain. The Arizona Senator’s rambling, nonsensical questions for Comey were not a good look for the former GOP Presidential candidate. From Chris Cillizza with CNN:

The strangest moment of the nearly three-hour Senate Intelligence Committee hearing featuring testimony from fired FBI Director James Comey came at the very end. And it came courtesy of a somewhat-unlikely source: Arizona Sen. John McCain…

…I’ll admit that I was — and am — as lost as Comey appeared to be as to what McCain was driving at. The two investigations — Clinton’s decision to establish a private email server and the Russians meddling in the 2016 election — are not the same thing.

► Governor John Hickenlooper has until late Friday afternoon to decide on how he will proceed with a civil asset forfeiture bill passed by the Colorado legislature.

Republican Montana Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte on Wednesday apologized to a reporter that he body slammed on the eve of last month’s special election, admitting his conduct was “unprofessional, unacceptable and unlawful.”

“Notwithstanding anyone’s statement to the contrary, you did not initiate any physical contact with me, and I had no right to assault you,” Gianforte said in a letter to reporter Ben Jacobs. “I am sorry for what I did and the unwanted notoriety this has created for you. I take full responsibility.”

Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian newspaper accepted the apology. Gianforte also said in the letter dated Wednesday that he will make a $50,000 donation to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Gianforte won the May 25 special election to take Montana’s single U.S. House of Representatives seat, which was vacated by Ryan Zinke, who was nominated and confirmed as Interior Secretary.

► The Colorado Mills Mall in Lakewood remains closed following last month’s massive hailstorm, but as 9News reports, it’s difficult to find out more information about the status of the mall — and the many hundreds of jobs related to the situation:

The parent company of Colorado Mills Mall in Lakewood is giving the city mayor as much of the cold shoulder as it is giving to Next.

At a study session on Monday night, Lakewood Mayor Adam Paul ended the meeting by lamenting the lack of information he’s getting from the mall’s parent company, Simon Property Group…

► As with most things surrounding the issue of legal marijuana in Colorado, there’s good news and bad news. From The Cannabist:

A three-judge panel for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Wednesday largely upheld lower courts’ dismissals of several cases seeking to overturn major parts of Colorado’s marijuana laws, including efforts by two neighboring states.

The appeals court panel did, however, reverse a district court decision against a Pueblo-area ranch that sued a neighboring cultivation facility, claiming noxious odors and diminished property values. In remanding that case to district court, the judges left the door open for something that legal experts and case attorneys say could rattle the legal marijuana industry: that private-property owners could potentially bring federal racketeering claims against neighboring marijuana grows and dispensaries.

It's a one-for-one (possibly slightly more moderate) substitution with no previous hanky-panky like Repubs did with Judge Garland. And Gov. Hickenlooper gets to replace her on the Colorado Supreme Court.

Can and do! The enemy's 'Moran' bench is mighty deep — overflowing, actually — with more corrupt, America-hating, fact- truth- and democracy-averse, power-mad right wing trump toadies and koch-fellators slithering from beneath their slimy rocks everyday to claim far more than their share of that delicious, heavenly taxpayers' pie.

Does Zinke understand that as soon as protections are rolled back for the Greater Sage Grouse, preservation groups will sue to have it added to the Endangered list? That will be more severe thsn the compromise eorked ouy.

North Carolina's Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, has had to put up with a lot of crap from the illegally (as in, confirmed by the US Supreme Court) gerrymandered Republican super-majority Legislature, but he competes way above his weight category…

On Monday Cooper called a special session of the Legislature for the purpose of rapidly correcting the unconstitutional maps. Today, the Legislature – which is still in regular session – voted to reject the Governor's order as unconstitutional. (There is no provision allowing them to do this, or to refuse to hold the extra session.)

The end result could well be Court-drawn maps; the Legislature has already shown resistance to correcting the deficiencies in the maps, and refusal of the specual session could be the evidence that forces the Court to appoint a Special Master to draw up new maps. It could also be used to show the District Court the way to reaffirming its earlier ruling that new elections must be held early to correct the deficient representation.

It appears that the system is finally in self-correcting mode. Republicans (and Conservatives in England) have finally roused the ire of the electorate. Throwing the bums out of office will be a popular motif for the next couple of years, if not longer. David Leonhardt of the New York Times has this to say:

Young people in the United States and Britain have something in common. They’re both living with a political reality that they don’t like.In the United States, voters under 30 preferred Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump by a landslide margin. In Britain, the under-30 vote overwhelmingly rejected Brexit and wanted to remain in Europe.But now it looks like young Brits, at least, may be starting to take their revenge. In a shocking result, Britain’s Conservative Party, led by Theresa May, failed to win a majority last night. It remains the largest party, yet its surprisingly poor showing leaves the country’s political situation unclear. May’s own future as the Conservative leader is in doubt, as are Brexit negotiations.

Perhaps the most obvious question is whether the Democrats should adopt the same unabashed populism — the real kind, not the Trump kind — that Corbyn did. For a taste of it, you can watch this brief campaign commercial. My instinct is that a bolder message from Democrats on the stagnation of middle-class living standards would make sense.